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We are the sum of where we have been, who and what we have loved, and the experiences that we have created. Some things happen to us. We make other things happen. But it all adds up to today. Joan Hughes is helping teachers to share the wisdom of those experiences through timelines of their experiences. I asked the storytellers to think back on those catalytic moments - the ah-has, the insights, the "wow" moments in their tech herstories.

• How did you get where you are today?
• When did you first use technology for teaching and learning?
• What do you remember about how you felt? What you thought? About what happened?
• Do you see any of this first experience in your work today?
• How had your work evolved?
• What do you notice about how your thinking had changed?
• What are the most memorable moments? triumphs and tragedies!

Nan Lombardo
My initial entry into the world of computer techknowledgey was in the bowels of the Computer Science Building at the University of Idaho. The course was disguised as "organizing and processing data" but in reality it was "How to punch code and survive a masters degree program while working full time." That was my baptism by the system's mainframe into the informational technology age. I've been tripping over cat 5 cables on a regular basis since then.

Back when "Trash 80s" began to filter into classrooms, I learned that when they started to make funny noises, if I hit them hard enough simultaneously with both hands on either side, the rattle would stop – which still holds true today with PCs. That was tech support.

From correcting selectric typewriters and lightweight tape recorders to cell phones, Palm Pilots, email, voice mail, caller ID, laptops, desk tops, GPS, digital cameras – whew! We've come a long way since my father first taped the red and green film on our TV so that we had "color."

Because of technology, I know I need to continue as a life long learner – that there is always something new and exciting, which in turn keeps me recharged. Technology affords me the opportunity to make informed decisions about me – my health, my finances, my future. Software helps to track my food, my bank account, my contacts. When traffic gets crazy and I'm stranded in a sea of frustrated drivers, I can call my family, my friends, 911! My day is filled with technology: breakfast in the blender, quick meal in the microwave at school and supper on the stove. I like not being trapped by mundane routines, and because of technological advances I can multi-task and be more efficient.

I smile when it all works; and I also smile, take a deep breath, regroup and look for ways over the wall when nothing seems to be functioning properly. I've learned to drop and roll, duck and cover and run for the hills when it all gets so crazy that I can't even find my spot. Sometimes it's difficult to remember that the process is as valuable as the product – that it's about the journey.

It was at the Cultural Festival where students were engaged in learning Aztec, African and Japanese dances from people dressed in native costumes and a steady stream of corporate jets flew overhead, preparing for landing at Boeing Field that I realized the stark contrast between what is and what was, and how, as the drums beat a rhythm of our past, with technology we can keep our heritage as we all soar into the future.

Alexis Moran
I haven't really taught anything really about technology but I can't wait to teach people what I know. Like I said, technology these days is common sense for the young ones but there are some things out that I haven't heard of or haven't tried but I am willing.

I was mad at first because I didn't really want to learn everything. I just wanted to jump into it and learn the hard way I guess, but at the same time I was really excited. I finally realized that I would be way behind if I took the hard road instead of the simple.

At first I was really slow at things but now I am speedy Gonzales. I am the same old me, but I am sure that as I get older I will say, "Hey do this. It's easier!"

The most memorable moments of how technology was impacting me were when I started to type faster and when I realized I was getting to know more and more people through the Internet. And that I can be more of a people person through that also.

Julie Botel
I have to start back at my own roots in Special Education. I started using technology with kid's who couldn't hold a crayon to write, who were not verbal at all, but could draw something on a computers, who could type, or have a computer read something back to them.

In the late 60's early 70's, I worked with deaf children, then multiply handicapped, then blind children. I remember how powerful it was for kids to be able to read, communicate and write for the first time because of technology. I so clearly remember this Down's syndrome child who had terrible motor skills, and was never able to express herself in writing until she had keyborad. She couldn't even hold a crayon ­even thosereally big crayons! It wasn't about the words on paper. It was about how proud she was. It was how proud she was that she could take something home to her parents. I remember her mother calling me and crying and saying how proud Tara was that she could do something that looked so could. I think we see that today – they are so proud of finding something on the Internet. Our educational sorority has beenŠ. Apple's have been doing for that for years.

It's very powerful when a child can express him or herself in a fluid environment. There's all that self-correction coming back. They know what sounds right – the computer is more fluent in reading back to them.

The technology of closed cpationing was very powerful for me 25 years ago, and obviously now, the technology of the Internet. People think – oh NJ – it's the most densly populated. We are a very isolated district. We're the largest geographic city in NJ without easy access to the outside. We have kids here who live an hour from the ocean who have never seen it. We take kids to the ocean but it's sthe first time they have been there. So when I see teacher able to expose kids to the outside world through technology, it is wonderful.

Kathy Conway
In the early 1980s I was eager to use technology in my classroom but the equipment and programs were very limited. In my Physics and Astronomy lessons I used the latest software on the market but there were so many hurdles to overcome. Machines didn't work, the software was complicated, programs often froze, and students easily became frustrated. After working with very limited funds and little administrative support I gave up until I went to another school in 1990. I did not have a computer at home until 1990 and there where no computers in my classroom until 1995. We did not have a functional school network that could handle all of our computers until a T-1 line was installed three years ago. I wrote grants to get computers for my classroom. I found funds to subsidize my technology training. An appointment of an on-site technology coordinator started things moving at our school and now I have lovely technology facilities.

It was purely by chance that I become involved in the NASA: Classroom of the Future project in 1995. A teacher who wanted to sign up for the project was transferred and I was asked to apply for the project instead. Without much enthusiasm I went to the week- long program at the Center for Educational Technology in Wheeling, WV and it was one of the best decisions I have made in my teaching career. At first I felt incompetent and computer illiterate compared to the other workshop participants but I soon realized that I was there to learn and I decided I had nothing to lose. I enrolled in a RuralNet project the following year and I began to feel more and more comfortable about using computers, the Internet and e-mail. I went to science workshops on graphing calculators and CBL use and I tried to take advantage of every technology training opportunity my school district offers.

The Exploring the Environment modules I do with my Chem Tech have had the most surprising results. Students start out bewildered. They spend a great deal of time trying to define a problem. They sort, argue, search for information, reject ideas, accept ideas, settle conflicts within teams, and come to a resolution of a problem based on a real life scenario. In the end, students are very proud of their work. They have ownership of the product because of so much time and effort they have put into the unit.

I see much of my CET experiences in my work today. I remember the problem solving experiences I went through at the Exploring the Environment workshop in Wheeling. I know my students are working through some of the same questions I had then. Over the years I have attended many technology workshops. A few of my computer literate lab assistants have taken time to teach me "tricks of the trade" and much of what I know about using computers and graphing calculators I owe to them.

Deborah Peek-Brown
My technology story has come full circle. I started teaching with technology as a guinea pig teacher for the Hi-ce (Highly Interactive Computing Education) research group at the University of Michigan. At the time (around 1990), the closest I had ever come to using technology was to type papers for graduate classes. My biggest teaching technology was a VCR. They gave me a computer and a phone line as a part of the grant and I was on my way! Not only did they give me the technology, but they helped me find new ways of teaching. They helped to learn to become a facilitator of instruction rather than a director. By the end of that grant, We were using the internet, We were using e-mail and we were collaborating with students in other classrooms all over the United States! I was hooked!

Through my work with Hi-ce I was recommended to implement another technology grant which came into our district. Through this grant I was to develop a technology integrated science program in my classroom. I received more computers, probes for data collection, a laser disc player and laser printer. I was in technology heaven!!! Then I came back to reality. What was I actually going to do with all this stuff?? How was I going to use it to help my students learn? Luckily I had wonderful colleagues and great students to help me along the way. We learned together, we made mistakes together.

Here is where the circle closes. The story ends right where it began because now, I am working with the Hi-ce group at the University of Michigan again. We are part of a partnership (the Center for Learning Technologies on Urban Schools) formed to help other science teachers use embedded technologies in science instruction. Now I have the expertise to help them develop instructional strategies that can enhance the use of technology in the classroom. More importantly I have the experience to understand the struggles that implementing technology can bring. And every once in a while I can even help them solve a techno-glitch or two. You know, when three computers freeze all at the same time, or the computer won't talk to the printer, or the software won't save, or...

Angela Cristini
In 1971 as a new graduate student in Biological Oceanography at the City University of New York I was delighted to learn that the second language requirement for the Ph.D. Program had just changed to include Computer Languages. How wonderful – no need to learn German or worse yet, Russian! About three years into the process, with my French requirement finished but two computer courses and two projects away from completing the second language, I began to think that learning the Russian alphabet might be fun.

My first tech-project was writing a program to conduct an Analysis of Variance to run on the Biology departmentís new PDP-8 computer (the size of a large file cabinet). Creating the program and having the computer deliver information vital to my understanding of the data I had generated from my field and laboratory experiments was truly exhilarating. The processes involved in writing the program and making it work left an indelible mark on the way I have approached problem solving during my entire scientific career. Mastering 4-Tran, card punching, and dealing with the "Mother of All Computers" in the basement of the engineering building for my second project convinced me that: I belonged in the biological sciences not the computer sciences; I would forever be fascinated by and attracted to technologies that could help me(or my students) ask and answer questions about the environment.